| Warrington (8) 14 |
| Tries: Ashton 2, Gelling Goals: Ratchford |
| Hull FC (13) 27 |
| Tries: Faraimo, Cator, Satae, Connor Goals: Sneyd 5 Drop-goal: Sneyd |
Hull FC moved within 80 minutes of a ‘home’ Grand Final at the KCOM Stadium by dumping Warrington out of the Super League play-offs at the first phase.
Marc Sneyd’s two conversions and drop-goal gave Hull the edge at the break as Stefan Ratchford failed to convert two.
Chris Satae added to Bureta Faraimo and Joe Cator’s first-half scores before Matty Ashton scored his second, with Anthony Gelling having earlier crossed.
Sneyd kicked a penalty goal and Jake Connor’s late try settled the result.
League Leader’s Shield winners Wigan will host Hull at the DW Stadium next Thursday.
Andy Last’s Black and Whites, who only crept into the play-offs thanks to a reshuffle of the format, came into the play-offs on the back of a run of four wins from five and made it five from six thanks to the tireless work of their pack.
Try-scorer Cator typified their efforts, continually bruising the Warrington line in attack and cutting down opponents at the other end.
It is a coincidence that Hull were thrashed at home by Warrington in Lee Radford’s final game in charge, the last match before lockdown – and the game in which Andy Last was named his successor on an interim basis.
Warrington showed moments of quality, notably through Blake Austin who created the second Ashton try with a mesmerising surge.
However, they never quite got into the game and were kept at arm’s length for much of the second half, as they slipped out of the knockout stages disappointingly for the second year in a row.
Warrington head coach Steve Price told BBC Sport:
“It was a disappointing way to go out, we had a team to give a really good account of ourselves this season.
“The markers which we set ourselves as a club we didn’t really hit tonight. Our standards, which is quite disappointing.
“We didn’t generate ruck-speed, and they were far superior in their kicking game tonight with Marc Sneyd.”
Hull FC interim head coach Andy Last told BBC Sport:
“It means everything, it gives us an opportunity to go up against Wigan in the semi-final and now we’re 80 minutes away from a home Grand Final.
“It was a big performance, we spoke all week that we needed the best performance of the season to get past a very good Warrington side who we have great respect for, and we got it.
“There were a couple of periods where they put pressure on us and previously we haven’t dealt with that pressure but tonight we did. One to 17 we were superb, we’ve got momentum and we’ve been building.”
Warrington: Ratchford; Ashton, Gelling, King, Charnley; Austin, Widdop; Hill, D. Clark, Philbin, Currie, Hughes, J. Clark
Interchanges: Davis, Murdoch-Masila, Robson, Mamo
Hull FC: Connor; Naulago, Fonua, Griffin, Faraimo; Tuimavave, Sneyd; Taylor, Johnstone, Bowden, Ma’u, Cator, Savelio
Interchanges: Houghton, Satae, Sao, Fash
Referee: L Moore.
